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estreetgirl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
hanniboiii's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Alice and Jay are reunited during the height of the pandemic, 20 years after their intense relationship ended. Over the course of a volatile few weeks isolating on the property of a wealthy and mysterious land owner, they seek closure as the reader uncovers the course of events that lead to their demise.
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Hari Kunzru takes you on a meandering, immersive journey through the grungy, 90s art scene in London, alternating between past and present, UK to US, exploring topics including the value of art, relationships, documentation, and more. Blue Ruin is a quintessential literary novel with an overall melancholic vibe.
•
I personally found this book both boring and quite intriguing. I appreciated the conversation around what it means to be an artist. I'm not quite at a place where I appreciate the lens of the pandemic, because it is still ongoing and challenging to navigate when the world thinks it's over, but Kunzru presented a unique perspective that felt separate from my own. If you are an artist and enjoy these slow moving, slightly boring yet cozy stories, I highly recommend this incredibly well written novel! Thank you Knopf for the gifted copy!
misha_ali's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This is one of the more enjoyable books I've read about art and the deeply broken people who create and facilitate it. The entirety of the main cast is two couples and one man and, aside from flashbacks, the novel is set in one enclosed property during the COVID lockdown. The claustrophobic feel and the heightened suspicion and fear make for an interesting mix.
This is also, to my delight, a deeply messy cast of characters. Jay is a former artist who lives in his car and is illegally in America delivering groceries for a rideshare app company when one of his deliveries leads to Alice, his girlfriend from twenty years prior who absconded with his best friend without a word and left him to pick up the pieces. Jay discovers that Alice has remained married to his former best friend for all those years, has a grown child and his best friend is now man a painter of some repute.
Alice hides Jay away in a shed on the property and slowly the cast of characters converse and discover what Jay has been hiding away from all these years ago and comes face to face with the two people who were the architects of the biggest betrayal he's felt and how deeply broken they all are. It's fascinating to see, from each of the characters' point of view, how the art world works and how they are caught within it or trapped in it.
The resulting mess is extremely human and presents interesting thoughts on various sides of art: Jay who walks away from any kind of acclaim to his art, Rob being hungry for praise and fame, Alice seeking to facilitate and be important and part of Something Greater and Marshall, trying to make his own name in the art dealing world. Very interesting and satisfying for anyone who likes rich characterization and musings on the idea of creating art.
This is also, to my delight, a deeply messy cast of characters. Jay is a former artist who lives in his car and is illegally in America delivering groceries for a rideshare app company when one of his deliveries leads to Alice, his girlfriend from twenty years prior who absconded with his best friend without a word and left him to pick up the pieces. Jay discovers that Alice has remained married to his former best friend for all those years, has a grown child and his best friend is now man a painter of some repute.
Alice hides Jay away in a shed on the property and slowly the cast of characters converse and discover what Jay has been hiding away from all these years ago and comes face to face with the two people who were the architects of the biggest betrayal he's felt and how deeply broken they all are. It's fascinating to see, from each of the characters' point of view, how the art world works and how they are caught within it or trapped in it.
The resulting mess is extremely human and presents interesting thoughts on various sides of art: Jay who walks away from any kind of acclaim to his art, Rob being hungry for praise and fame, Alice seeking to facilitate and be important and part of Something Greater and Marshall, trying to make his own name in the art dealing world. Very interesting and satisfying for anyone who likes rich characterization and musings on the idea of creating art.
paleleaf's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
amandajinut's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
dai2daireader's review
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
lonestarwords's review
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
There are really only two kinds of artists. You’re either an intellectual or a savage, and you don’t really have a choice about which.
Blue Ruin
Hari Kunzru
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Thank you @prhaudio for this #gifted ALC of Blue Ruin, due out May 14th.
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Another Covid novel — they just keep coming, each with a new twist. Blue Ruin uses the pandemic to explore and dissect the relationship between Alice and Jay, two lost souls who unexpectedly reunite twenty years after their breakup when Covid brings them back together in an bizarre act of fate.
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During their years attending a London art school, Alice and Jay lived lives of excess in an unhealthy relationship, leading to a breakup when Alice suffers from their drug abuse. She leaves Jay for his best friend and heads to the United States. The novel opens twenty years later when Jay is struggling to make ends meet living in NYC during Covid and he stumbles back into Alice’s life and the reckoning that never happened is set in play.
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I adore an art-centric novel and that is what drew me into this one. My real complaint is that there isn’t that much art here - it’s more of a millennial relationship angst story that felt very reminiscent of a Sally Rooney novel. There is a thread of art strung through the story but it’s thin. That said, I was engaged in the drama (even though I disliked all the characters) but I do think I’m a bit sick of the Covid storyline. Enough already.
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The writing is very strong and the audio is read by the author and his narration was excellent. Overall, I was entertained if not wowed. I usually have so much to say in a review I have to cut my word count and here, I am not even close with not much more to say! I guess that speaks volumes.
Blue Ruin
Hari Kunzru
•
Thank you @prhaudio for this #gifted ALC of Blue Ruin, due out May 14th.
•
Another Covid novel — they just keep coming, each with a new twist. Blue Ruin uses the pandemic to explore and dissect the relationship between Alice and Jay, two lost souls who unexpectedly reunite twenty years after their breakup when Covid brings them back together in an bizarre act of fate.
•
During their years attending a London art school, Alice and Jay lived lives of excess in an unhealthy relationship, leading to a breakup when Alice suffers from their drug abuse. She leaves Jay for his best friend and heads to the United States. The novel opens twenty years later when Jay is struggling to make ends meet living in NYC during Covid and he stumbles back into Alice’s life and the reckoning that never happened is set in play.
•
I adore an art-centric novel and that is what drew me into this one. My real complaint is that there isn’t that much art here - it’s more of a millennial relationship angst story that felt very reminiscent of a Sally Rooney novel. There is a thread of art strung through the story but it’s thin. That said, I was engaged in the drama (even though I disliked all the characters) but I do think I’m a bit sick of the Covid storyline. Enough already.
•
The writing is very strong and the audio is read by the author and his narration was excellent. Overall, I was entertained if not wowed. I usually have so much to say in a review I have to cut my word count and here, I am not even close with not much more to say! I guess that speaks volumes.
readingwitheden's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5